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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24963550">Black Sheep</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/V3sp3r/pseuds/V3sp3r'>V3sp3r</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Post-Canon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 10:41:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>16,271</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24963550</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/V3sp3r/pseuds/V3sp3r</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"If a person wants to murder or otherwise destroy (financially or socially) any member of a family, then it is very important that the entire family be done away with, or the distraught survivors might very well decide to take bloody revenge." - Professor Wulf Bane</p>
<p>Ahari Beran, the black sheep of the Beran Family, is now the only sheep of the family due to a series of unfortunate events leading back to one Artemis Fowl the Second. She has the limited funds of her inheritance, her intelligence and a gun. </p>
<p>So she's going to give it a red hot go. </p>
<p>On the other side of things, Artemis is not going to Mars because I don't like that. Instead he's working on the Orbital Network, designed to bring the world back up to speed after the technological crash and clean the space detritus in the Earth's orbit.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Palazzo Pesca</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thanks to minerva stan and my friend Naomi for Betaing this! And thank you The Lower Elements discord server for giving me confidence, you guys are the best.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p><strong>Prologue</strong><br/>Knowing now, the reasons Ahari Beran had for attempting such a dramatic revenge casts everything we thought about the <em>Dullahan</em> in a rather tragic light. We thought it was someone motivated by money, by spite. Not by grief. Not by death. We had predicated hatred though, Artemis Fowl the Second had made many enemies in his misadventures.<br/>This account has been put together from interviews with the individuals it concerns. Details were argued over, thoroughly quibbled and a fair few expletives thrown. However, before you is what I believe to be a nearly complete tale.<br/>We take a look into the closest any human has ever gotten to killing Artemis Fowl and the third time fairies were discovered by a young human genius.<br/>Ahari was twenty-one at the time.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strong>Chapter One</strong>
</p>
<p>Palazzo Pesca was a uniquely Venetian building, having lived through much of the early fourteenth century and sliding idly by through much of history until the last two descendants of the family who built it came around. They started a minor civil war contained to their street before finally agreeing to split the house in two. Every embellishment, every fixture and indeed fixed piece of furniture that lay on the fault line between the two warring brothers was split by a sudden and highly decorated wall.</p>
<p>In more recent years, long after the death of these siblings, the Palazzo had been purchased by a wealthy benefactor who was interested in preserving the house and indeed trying to restore it. The house was rejuvenated, in places modernised and in others simply cleaned. The wall that had once forced apart two worlds was cut into its most interesting pieces and reused as decorative pillars.</p>
<p>It was in this new lease of life that it made its debut as a convention hall and art gallery, hosting many such events from institutes of learning to supporting amateur artists at their first art shows. After all, amateur meant someone who practised for the love of it, not for the hollow money. In the technological crisis that rocked the world, Palazzo Pesca was forced to change again. However, it was uniquely prepared for large and dramatic changes, and smoothly turned over to fit the new normal.</p>
<p>Ahari had studied it as many times as she had needed to. She’d studied plenty of places where the younger Fowl was likely to appear, giving a lecture about something or another. She’d attended dozens of them over the months- it was incredible how a little bit of contour could change the structure of the face. There was no being too careful after all, he could be paranoid at times.</p>
<p><em>Know thine enemy</em> was the phrase, wasn’t it? Uttered by people so assured of their own Machiavellian intellect, so they could play their own little games and believe that they were so above everyone else-</p>
<p>The crowd clapped. Ahari was startled out of her own reverie. She joined in with the applause, smiling politely at the back of the long room. He was standing closer than he’d ever been before. The boy, barely a man, was stood at the end of the room. She could pick out the faces around him like she could pick out members of her own family. Domovoi Butler, of course he was here. A Fowl could never be without his Butler, from what Ahari had learned such a thing was unthinkable unless separated by death itself. Then there were other famous scientists, academics. All there to endorse whatever shit Fowl was selling people. The “Orbital Network”, a faster, cleaner network to bring the world back up to speed and clear the detritus in the atmosphere.</p>
<p>The wig itched the back of her neck but Ahari made no move to scratch it. Any indication of a disguise would be noticed if this was being filmed. No doubt any video evidence would be poured over, searched, and scanned and stuck on cork boards with string. Because today Artemis Fowl the second would die here. He would die nearly a thousand miles away from home for what he’d done.</p>
<p>She uttered a few apologetic phrases as she slipped to the very back of the room, making for the corridor that led to the bathrooms. Ahari turned left instead of right where the bathrooms were clearly signposted, waited until another bout of applause broke out before slipping into a room that while not off-limits wasn’t exactly on limits either. It was as grandly decorated in baroque style as the rest of the Palazzo, with sprawling half naked scenes from myth and legend somehow tastefully covered in drapes of fabric. But sparsely furnished, perhaps a kind of storeroom for chairs by the looks of it.</p>
<p>Ahari crossed the room and dug her fingernails into the wallpaper, three inches to the side of a fresco depicting Psyche looking upon the face of Cupid. She found the dent she was looking for and scored the outline of a doorway. Servant staircases, what rich leech could live without servants of course?</p>
<p>Know thine enemy: know where he was likely to parade himself and his accomplishments. Know where the unseen walked. Know where those who weren’t worth the time walked. Then you were invisible. Ahari slipped into the doorway.</p>
<p>The servant’s staircase that she found herself in had been forgotten by time and certainly had been unnoticed by the decorators. It was thick with cobwebs and dust, a cramped little space of brick with a couple of bare light bulbs strung on dirt-smeared wires.</p>
<p>It was an awkward place to get changed in, even with the replacement clothes she’d neatly folded and left there the previous evening. The doorway to the staircase on the ground floor was much more accessible and Ahari wondered as she pulled hair pins from her scalp if some good would come from this. The party responsible for restoring the building would at least have a new and interesting feature to market, even if they did have the bad press from the death.</p>
<p>She folded the dress neatly and slotted it along with the wig into the hard-shelled cross body bag that was leaning against the wall. Ahari changed into the motorcycle leathers she was accustomed to before pulling the helmet over her head. The visor quickly turned on, recognising the pattern of her iris down to a microscopic level. Ahari then made sure her handgun was secure in its holster at her hip before stepping out again into the light.</p>
<p>It was a short walk from the other side of the room to the doorway, but it felt like years. Like she was wading through thick mud. Then suddenly the door was in front of her, the threshold of it all. Ahari rested her hand on the doorknob, paused, then walked through the door.</p>
<p>The corridor was mainly empty, there were one or two servers hanging around the doorway, looking into the long room. They were faced away from her, so didn’t notice her until she had already passed them, until she was already drawing her gun.</p>
<p>It was easy to line up the shot over the heads of the crowd, easy to thumb back the hammer and by that point, she didn’t really have much choice other than to pull the trigger. Three shots.</p>
<p>Mother. Father. Fayyad.</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>The orbital network had barely been a side project, a theoretical but clean way of returning the global communication network to its pre-crash state. It had spent three weeks being emailed between Artemis and Foaly, poked around, edited and refined until finally neither party could jab the other over minor flaws.<br/>A system to reconnect the world, to clean the orbit that was full of discarded satellites and other such garbage. The fairy half of the network’s origins had to be hidden of course, but if Opal Koboi could hide fairy technology most of the way around the globe without anyone noticing, people were hardly going to notice when it wasn’t even on the planet.</p>
<p>Indeed, plans were already going ahead at Mont Fowl, the half laboratory, half office space Artemis had designed to be worked in half by humans, and half by fairies. Separated from each other of course, while the human staff went home at night, the people could move in and start their half of the work. He almost smiled when he thought about it, as it reminded him of tales of fairies coming to fix things in the night. The Elves and the Shoemaker.</p>
<p>He spoke clearly and warmly, which was strange to hear even with his own ears. But he was getting better at it, little by little. Piece by piece. Even now, years later there were slight holes in his memory. Artemis knew what should be there, he had it written verbatim from several accounts of what should be in those gaps, saved on several different hard drives.</p>
<p><em>With time</em>, was the advice, <em>with time your memory will return</em>. Coming from a mother with a history of mental health problems didn’t exactly help him, but it wasn’t like it could be changed. Artemis would have to be patient, luckily he was exceptionally good at that.<br/>Still, the orbital network was something to be proud of. Over the past few years of fitting back into his new body, he’d come out with a few new technologies, but none as public as this. It felt nice to be talking to people, outside of students in lecture halls.<br/>Something tugged at a lock of hair at the nape of his neck, and he smiled as he spoke of the orbital network. Holly had insisted on coming, that and Trouble had put her forward as the People’s representative. Foaly would have been harder to hide of course and Artemis suspected Holly may have made some allusions about his memory in order to join him. He didn’t mind that much, it would make sense after all that her presence would jog some memories.<br/>Artemis paused as his eye caught movement at the back of the long room. Three gunshots, three very neatly grouped circular cracks in the nanoglass before him. It all seemed to happen a little in slow motion, he blinked and suddenly he was hidden behind Butler’s large frame, someone was shouting orders. A burst of air lead to him lazily tracking the shimmer of Holly’s shield through the air as she swooped over the pane of glass. He wasn’t in pain; but his mind felt clouded, foggy almost. Artemis blinked and rubbed at his eyes as almost like cotton wool had been pulled from his ears, he heard the screaming.<br/>-<br/>She didn’t have time to swear or even really think about reprimanding herself. Ahari turned to her right and charged to the open balcony doors, jumping up and over the balustrade without hesitation.<br/>Ahari landed heavily on the next roof, wincing a little. It had always looked like a much shorter drop on the architectural prints but hey, this was the least important thing to be wrong about. She was a good runner, an unchecked adolescence and a teenager’s understanding of what was cool had led Ahari to pick up the skills needed for parkour.<br/>Not that Holly knew any of that. Speeding through the air, a faint shimmer in the evening sun. The blackout suit would have provided her with full cover, if it wasn’t half tied around her waist. Still, the sun’s rays were weak enough to only cause mild discomfort. An ancient crawling in her bones.<br/>She’d had enough time to grab her helmet and wing pack before swooping after the figure. In Holly’s mind, it would only be a short chase.<br/>“I’ve got eyes on the shooter,” she barked into the helmet’s microphone.<br/>She could hear the sound of Foaly clicking his tongue as the visor zoomed in on the fleeing figure, trying to pick out anything from their clothes- labels or distinctive markings that could be used to trace them.<br/>“Okay, looks like a female. Probably between the ages of nineteen to twenty-two,” Holly heard the vague sounds of annoyance. “Can’t see any logos on that jacket or helmet. Probably custom jobs.”<br/>Another voice crackled through.<br/>“Just knock her out and leave her for the human authorities, Captain,” Trouble said, gruffly. “No need for us to get involved.”<br/>The helmeted figure darted off to the side, taking cover behind a rooftop access doorway. She peered around, checking to see if she was being followed. Holly hovered in the air, pulling her neutrino from it’s holster. She was of two minds about the situation. The first was motivated by a desire to protect Artemis- they had all only just gotten him back. This was the first time in months he had really seemed like himself again. Then there was the more logical side of things. Whoever this was, she had been there for Artemis and Artemis alone. There was no other reason for Holly to be involved here, just knock the would-be murderer out and leave her to be dealt with by human authorities.<br/>Her thoughts gave her just enough pause for the helmeted figure to look up, directly at her and fire two more shots.<br/>-<br/>Ahari had been running for what felt like an age, with blood pumping in her ears and gasps of air coming uncomfortably warm due to the helmet. Eventually, she stopped her dodging and weaving to drop behind a concrete outbuilding that lead down from the rooftop. With the gun still in her hand, she chanced a look around the corner. Nothing. Ahari didn’t trust that, Fowl surely had a thousand instruments and inventions that could be tracking her movement even now.<br/>Paranoia was key when dealing with an enemy you expected to predict your every move, after all. Ahari reached to the side of her helmet, gently tapping at her temple. Infrared came up with nothing, so she switched to thermal imaging.<br/>A blob of orange and yellow caught her attention immediately. It was hovering about ten to fifteen feet off of the roof, it was shaking or vibrating- hard to tell on the visor. Still, an ingrained impulse caused Ahari to raise her gun and fire two shots.<br/>They weren’t particularly accurate; it was hard to get a good shot on something that appeared to be trying to vibrate out of existence. The orange blob however, plunged to the roof, something clattered and crunched under them. Ahari switched the visor back to normal and peered down.<br/>There was still nothing there, aside from a void in an expanding pool of red oil? The wings of the drone hand come loose. They were like insect wings, though one of the larger blades had cracked and smashed. Ahari straightened and glanced around, noticing something small and green by her foot. She picked it up and gave it a brief examination. It was some kind of device attached to a bracer but was far too small for her own arm. Almost like a child’s toy.<br/>Ahari’s head snapped up at the sound of sirens and grimaced. Time to leave. She shoved whatever it was into her jacket pocket and slipped down the ladder to the street below. It wasn’t too far from here to the garage, where she could swap out the helmet and jacket.<br/>She had a feeling it wasn’t quite over yet.<br/>-<br/>“Well, I wasn’t expecting that,” Foaly’s image hovered in the air above a small octagonal box.<br/>Several more bluish tinged screens floated around the hotel room, various frames from Holly’s helmet cam. The elf herself was scowling at them while Artemis stood and occasionally plucked one out of the air to examine it further.<br/>“Thermal imaging. It can’t get through LEP suits normally, but,” Artemis paused, aware of Holly’s sour glance. “We know now whoever this is has the brains to modify the visor of the helmet. Or has access to someone who can.”<br/>Artemis pulled the image of the helmeted figure leaning around the doorway.<br/>“No hits on a make or model?” He asked.<br/>“Nope, visually similar to a couple of brands but nothing sticks. Got a lock on the handgun though, Ruger SR9C. Nine-millimetre rounds, fairly lightweight. Nothing particularly special about the weapon itself though,” Foaly pulled up a holograph of the weapon. “Not designed to punch through nanoglass. Obviously our shooter didn’t expect that, so you’d better thank me for the suggestion it be installed this morning.”<br/>“It certainly punches a hole though,” Holly muttered, thumbing over the healed spot on her shoulder. “Have you got anything on the communicator?”<br/>“We’re working on it but I’m pretty sure it was damaged either by the fall or one of the shots, Trouble- I mean Commander Kelp’s upgraded this to a black breach.”<br/>Holly looked up at Artemis.<br/>“No ideas about who this is?”<br/>Artemis shrugged.<br/>“Plenty, she could just be the hitwoman for someone else, after all. I don’t recall upsetting any women in the hostile’s age range recently.”<br/>“Wow, only recently?”<br/>Artemis laughed a little.<br/>“If at all,” he replied. “It’d be worth seeing if you can’t track down that communicator by it’s wavelength, there was no point designing that feature for you if you don’t use it after all.”<br/>Foaly huffed down the microphone, his static image looking slightly more annoyed than usual. He still wasn’t fond of using tech created by anyone but him, especially since the Koboi incident. The wavelengths had merely been a simple backup in case the nearly impossible happened, which it had.<br/>“I’ve got someone on that already,” Foaly grunted.<br/>-<br/>Which he did. It was just a shame that it happened to be the wrong person. Because his name was Trei Toir and happened to be on two payrolls. One as a low level LEP IT intern and the other for a certain elfin captain.<br/>No, not that one. An elf decidedly on the other half of the law, Lupina Caniae the third otherwise known as Captain Fang. To give her history in short: Rich children can get away with quite a lot, and Fang had gotten away with more than that.<br/>She had a few goals in life, Fairy supremacy, ruling the fairy criminal underworld with an iron fist and of course becoming the biggest name in Haven city, not necessarily in that order. Of course to get on top of the list Fang knew she would have to make a name for herself.<br/>And what better way than killing Artemis Fowl the second? There’d been plenty of people in Haven disillusioned with the LEP, even with the Council, who had a bone to pick with the mudboy. Personally, Fang would have liked to have waltzed up to the surface by herself and put a fully charged neutrino round in the irritating little shit, but that plan was curbed by her second in command.<br/>So, when Fang heard that there was someone out there with a grudge against Fowl and had gotten close enough to have put three bullets inches from his face, she was interested. Little more than an hour later she had the wavelength in front of her, on her personal commscreen.<br/>“Can you change it so she can’t be tracked?” She asked the floating representation of Trei, who was currently hunched in a supply cupboard.<br/>“Already done boss, supplied the LEPers with the story that it got broken like the tracker,” he grinned, it was ghoulish in the light from his communicator.<br/>“Good. Keep sifting, send anything you find on this mudgirl to me and keep it away from the horsebox, you hear me?”<br/>The horsebox was the slang the gangs used for the centaur’s technology headquarters. Insulting and derogatory, just how they liked it.<br/>“Sure thing, boss.”<br/>“Good work, I’ll make sure Logan sends you something extra this time,” she grinned, showing off the filed canines which supplied the moniker.<br/>Fang swiped his image away and relaxed in her chair. It was a good chair, based off the old Koboi hoverchair designs. She looked at the hovering line of the wavelength and thought about plans and plots and guns and knives.<br/>What fun this was going to be.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. First Contact</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Ahari acquires an unlikely ally, Fang ties up some loose ends, Mulch settles a band disagreement</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you Neveroutoftime for beta reading this!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The dark did not suit Ahari. It brought out the shadows under her eyes all too keenly, showing off sleepless nights of planning. It didn’t suit her skin either, having inherited the brown of her father's Saudi Arabian-Egyptian family. Ahari looked better in sunlight, the kind of light that illuminated the gold of her eyes and the curve of her smile. However, the thick curtains were closed. Only a thin shaft of evening light permeated the room, which was mostly lit by screens.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She glanced at the tablet on the table near her right elbow as she sat down again; the device before her lay with screen removed and internal workings just starting to budge. Ahari took a sip of the whiskey she had poured for herself and grimaced only at the headline rolling across the page.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Irish heir to billions escapes assassination attempt- culprit still at large. </span>
  </em>
  <span>This was messy, but nothing she hadn’t prepared for. There would be other opportunities, soon. The opening of Mont Fowl for one. If he made it back to his family’s Eco Villa then there were other complications, but he couldn’t stay in there forever.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Absently she traced a thumb over the small indentations, some kind of code used by Fowl probably. It was a little bit fantastical, what with the mushroom and acorn symbols. Ahari copied them down in a notebook, decoding would have to come later. The matter of getting this thing open and getting a solid idea of how it worked was far more pressing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>First, the screws were magnetic, which was annoyingly innovative but were perhaps the easiest thing to get past. The greenish glass of the screen was cracked, probably damaged in the fall- she could probably replace it. The internal workings were tiny- almost alien in their design. Ahari frowned as she picked through it, trying to shake off the clouding, numbing effect of the alcohol. Once the guts of the thing were spread out in front of her the frown deepened.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>This was like nothing she had ever seen before, Ahari wasn’t even sure she knew what the damn thing was made of even if it felt familiar. It made her particularly uneasy- she liked machines. She liked making them, she liked taking them apart to see how they worked much to her father’s chagrin.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As far as Ahari dared to speculate, she suspected it was a communicator of some kind. Any interfaces she could bring up were all in the same strange coded language. The longer she looked at the symbols the stronger her headache got. Ahari gritted her teeth and kept working, even with the lancing pain in her right eyeball.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Cannibalising a couple of her own devices, she pried and rewired and made educated guesses about what could be fixed with what before flipping it over to come face to face with her old enemy: the magnetic screws. Ahari wondered how long it would take to set up a rotating magnetic field to stick the damn things back in, before giving up and carving notches into the heads of the screws herself.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The bracer just about fit around her own wrist; she was fairly narrow she supposed. The jacket had thick padding around the shoulders and her boots gave her an extra couple of inches in height. Small irregularities, small changes to any descriptions put out among law enforcement.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A cheerful tune filled the room, breaking the relative quiet Ahari had been working in. She reached for her phone and relaxed upon seeing the caller’s identity.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey Jamie,” she said, her voice raspy from lack of use.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wow, you sound like hot garbage. Drinking water? Eating food? Considering the sweeping ramifications of your actions?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That raised a little laugh out of her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Seriously though, you holding up okay? I do want you to get home in one piece, y’know,” in the background of the call she could hear the clattering of cupboards.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Third cupboard from the window,” she said.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ah, nice. Do I even want to know how you knew I was looking for the strainer?” More clattering sounds followed, followed by the rustling of plastic and dry pasta shells.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You eat more pasta than is probably healthy.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well you’re a functional alcoholic trying to kill some bougie asshole,” Jamie grumbled back, there was a brief pause as a metal pot was filled with water. “And y’know speaking of that…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t want to argue about this again, Jamie,” Ahari rubbed the bridge of her nose.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I know, I know I just… You know it’s not giving up if you come home now, right? You don’t have to do this.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ahari leaned back into her chair.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I do,” she replied, eventually.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Jamie sighed in a rush of static.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Alright, okay. Well, know that I won’t think any less of you if you came home. And I don’t want to have to bail you out if you get arrested. Do they let you pay bail if you’re arrested for murder?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Better start looking at my options,” she smiled a little as she heard Jamie laugh.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Like you haven’t already. Right, I won’t beat a dead horse but come home safe. For me and Gwen,” his voice was gentle and persuasive.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ahari sat up, looking over her scattered workbench. It was tempting to pack everything up and go home, of course it was. But then she looked at the battered photo leant up against her toolbox.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ll try,” she said, but her heart wasn’t in it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Alright. Love ya, see you soon!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“See you later, Jamie,” Ahari pulled the phone away from her ear and hit the end call button.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She looked at the photo again. It had been taken a long time ago when she and Fayyad had been fourteen. Ahari had won a fencing tournament and he had been the only one who came to see her. Their mother, Olympia Beran, had been a renowned opera singer and had at the time been on tour. Their father, Yosef Beran, barely cared what she did at all.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But Fayyad had come. Even at fourteen he’d been taller than her, broader than her. His eyes were brown like their father’s while hers were golden like their mother’s. Still, they bore the same nose, same jet-black hair, and arched eyebrows. That was the thing about twins, they tended to look kind of similar even if they weren’t identical.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He was gone now, though. Ahari often thought about that night, it plagued her in a way events we’re powerless to stop often do. Perhaps if she’d gone to check on him sooner. Perhaps if she hadn’t been thinking about the hospital. Perhaps if she’d never told him about Gwen then dad wouldn’t have sent her to the Fionn Clinic and-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She rubbed her face. No use moping about it now. It was time to channel the moping to anger and direct it at a certain Irishman. Starting with whatever the hell was in front of her. Ahari made a few tentative prods at the new screen.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It flickered on, luminous and green, scrolling through more of those unfamiliar symbols. She noted down any that were new but could only pick out minor patterns that could be words. Sure, Ahari was clever but it could take weeks to crack this without even knowing if she was looking at a cypher or an entire language. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She sneered at the thing. Of course, Artemis fucking Fowl would make an entire new language just to encode his little secrets. No matter, she had time, she had backup plans. She lacked a team but who needed a hulking bodyguard when you’d had your own back for years, right?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Allies were useful. It was just holding the careful balance of not letting them grow too big for their own boots and cutting them off when it looked like they might turn on you. Quite a few of Fang’s stints in various psychiatric facilities (a Caniae could hardly be put in something as vulgar as a </span>
  <em>
    <span>prison</span>
  </em>
  <span> after all) had been because someone waved a little bit of incentive under someone else’s nose and the whole operation had come crashing around her pointy ears.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Which was why she was watching one of her brainiacs dust over Trei’s payment with a particularly nasty mudman made poison. Obviously, she was watching from behind a glass screen, wearing a mask, but she was watching all the same. Trei had been a good little tattletale from the horsebox, but lately he’d been getting cocky. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Logan appeared at her elbow, a dwarf of no gender or seemingly scruples. They had a beard, as did most dwarves regardless of identity and a penchant for things that glitters, as most dwarves did again regardless of identity. Logan happened to be exceedingly good at technology, opening cyberspace doors as well as the rest of their clan opened real ones.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The wavelength’s blacked out from all LEP comms, Captain. Without the horsebox I can’t pinpoint you a location, but I can get you a call,” their voice was surprisingly smooth for a dwarf, Logan had never been a tunneler. Dirt was disinteresting to them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Fang grinned.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Better go say hello to the mudgirl of the hour then, hadn’t we?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Her office in the hideout, which was more or less three floors of a block of flats Fang was paying the rent on, was the previous master bedroom of the largest suite. Logan’s computers were scattered all about the place, but Fang didn’t care. She preferred it, in fact. There was some mudman saying about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer. Not that they were enemies, but Fang preferred to hedge her bets.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Captain Fang sank into her hoverchair, which lazily floated backwards with the force of her fall. It bounced against a table and made a few monitor shake. Logan glanced up briefly, but otherwise said nothing, large hands already tangled in wires and fiddling with screens.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Patching you through now, Captain,” they said.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Always so formal. Fang liked that about them. A hoverscreen popped from one of the armrests of the chair, floating at a comfortable distance for idle scrolling. A gentle hum made Fang look at her diminutive IT person.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Something the matter?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, not anything of importance, Captain. The mudgirl has made some modifications to the communicator, that’s all. Starting the call now,” Logan pressed a few more buttons. “You’ll only be able to hear them, mind Captain. Camera on their end is broken.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Fang got comfortable.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The device was making a noise, it made a noise every time she touched it. It was annoying more in the sense that Ahari had no idea what it was trying to tell her, some flashing symbol of the moon.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>This noise was different, and it had summoned a screen made of pure light hovering in the air before her. Ahari put down her glass. This was a turn up for the books at least. Lazily she dragged a finger around the hovering words in front of her. The alcohol was setting in earnestly now, turning her limbs to lead.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A woman appeared on the screen. Not a woman, a child? It was hard to tell really, leaning back in her chair she regarded the figure and its ears. They were pointed, and her proportions were all wrong. Too adult for such a small body. She had short blonde hair, with red roots coming through at the parting. It looked like she’d hacked it into shape with a knife. Her eyes were piercing- bright pink but Ahari could tell her skin was brown even through the blue tinge of the screen.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Complimenti, Bellissima,</span>
  </em>
  <span>” the woman said.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Her Italian was perfect, unnaturally so. But what worried Ahari more was her lack of helmet, god knew how this thing transmitted- her face could be everywhere by now.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I can’t see you, but I know you’re there. It seems we have a little bit of a common goal: the death of Artemis Fowl.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ahari’s heartbeat quickened slightly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Now, I don’t care for your reasons, but I can see you handle yourself pretty well. So, I’m offering you a hand, a leg up. You help me, I can put you right in front of the bastard. I just want a little bit of help in return- the orbital network. I want it, understand?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The woman paused, then leaned out of the shot slightly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Throw her up some options, change the language to Italian on her communicator.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The screen flickered; the words changed to Italian. At last, notifications began making sense- or some did. </span>
  <em>
    <span>UNAUTHORISED AUGMENTATION: REPORT IMMEDIATELY TO POLICE PLAZA </span>
  </em>
  <span>and </span>
  <em>
    <span>WARNING: MAGIC LEVELS DANGEROUSLY LOW, PLEASE COMPLETE THE RITUAL. </span>
  </em>
  <span>The last one kept returning with the symbol of the moon, but it still barely made any sense.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There were two buttons hovering below the image of the woman now. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Agree </span>
  </em>
  <span>or </span>
  <em>
    <span>disagree</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Ahari pressed the agree button.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Good! Good, now we can really get down to brass tacks, as the phrase goes,” the woman grinned.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Even through the blue tint of the screen, Ahari could see the sharpness of her teeth. Logically, she knew they must be filed down, teeth on humans and indeed human ancestors had never been that sharp. The more instinctive side of her brain felt a cold chill, like she was seeing a tiger at the mouth of a cave.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The orbital network satellites are being moved as we speak to Mont Fowl, very sadly the little shitbag didn’t bring it with him to his grand presentation or my job would be a heck of a lot easier. They are however making a stop at Verona tomorrow morning, to then move on to his hidey hole in the Alps. I need you to help us steal Fowl’s half of the activation key, help us retrieve the other half from Mont Fowl and then kill him. Maybe not in that order, but he can’t die until we get to Mont Fowl, understood?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The buttons hung in the air again. Ahari pressed to agree once more.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We are going to get on famously, I just know it,” the woman’s grin turned crooked. “Tell you what, show of faith, I’ll have my people send you half the files now and the other half if you meet us in Verona. I’ll even have them put in something you can read.” She nodded off to the side again, and the device- the communicator buzzed slightly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>FILE RECEIVED, </span>
  </em>
  <span>flashed across the screen. The woman leaned forward, an uncomfortable amount of malice in her eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Where are my manners, I haven’t even introduced myself. I’m Captain Fang. You work for me now.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dwarf screamo metal was only recently made popular in Haven City. After all, dwarves had only really recently discovered their talent for it. Among such other talents as beard hair with rigor mortis, bioluminescent saliva that hardened something fierce and of course that which we do all know: the eating and expulsion of dirt.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mulch Diggums happened to be at the forefront of this movement, never being one to stray from ideas of minor celebrityhood and anything that concerned money. Of course, he’d been pardoned- he must’ve been pardoned a thousand times by now. But having that level of saving the fairy world multiple times brought him a kind of fame that made it hard to return to his usual business, at least in Haven.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Even he had felt a little bad when the occupants of the houses he was breaking into started asking for his autograph. So, when his cousin Nord started talking about this band business, he thought he might as well give it a go. He’d called the band </span>
  <em>
    <span>The Dead Rabbits, </span>
  </em>
  <span>a reference to his cousin’s escape at Fowl Manor some years previously. Mulch had thought it was pretty good, Foaly had been less convinced. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Port concerts weren’t particularly unusual. For the larger terminals, there would often be conference halls and people needing to be entertained. This happily coincided with the rising popularity of dwarf metal in the younger generations. Of course, for him to be so close to the human world the LEP had insisted on sending a guard. They had sent a very flattering email, not written by anyone who had actually met him, telling him that they were sending their best and brightest to accompany him. For his own protection, of course. He’d hoped they were sending Holly, but of course she was far too important to be running babysitting duty.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When he first looked at the goblin/sprite hybrid in front of him, he at first wasn’t convinced. Lieutenant Mynah Lye was a flatnose Goblin and Sprite hybrid, made obvious by her flat, catlike nose and the wings protruding from her back. She had spoken to him in clipped, professional tones and had been nothing but polite.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Still. Mulch recalled a few hours spent in a goblin crowded cell all too well. Hey, that sounded like a good song name. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Goblin crowded cell.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She was standing at his left shoulder, by the door, quiet with her visor drawn down over her face. He figured that was easier for her, letting people think they were just dealing with a Sprite. Mulch had only mildly thought about stepping out into the breezy Verona air after all. It was getting too early anyway, soon it would be morning. It was already four am, the only people here now were the ones here for the show and the overday travellers.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He was sitting at a glass topped table eating his dinner looking out over the departure lounge while his bandmates argued. They did this a lot while Nord desperately tried to placate them. Mulch was by a longshot, the easiest member of the band to deal with being that he only cared that he got paid. The other three were what Nord called “temperamental artists”.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Igneous and Crazy Diamond were arguing about the creative progress of the band. Mulch wasn’t entirely sure what that was, but from what he could garner it was that Igneous wanted the ground to stick to the same black and white rabbit symbol while Diamond wanted to start throwing some colours in. Diamond had produced a number of artworks based on classic dwarf literature he had done himself. Meanwhile, Gneiss wanted them both to shut up so she could tune her bass guitar properly. Their beard hairs were rising in great halos around their heads, like the manes of lions. It was a bad sign when the beard of a dwarf got like that.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Then there was Nord, directly in the middle of it as always. Forever needing his cousin to back him up. Even Lieutenant Lye had angled her head towards Mulch as if asking if he was going to intervene. Mulch sighed and put down his dirt devil dog, which had come specially all the way from Spuds, and rose to his feet.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Alright you two,” he grunted, making his way between the now fuming artists. “I think you’ve both made your points.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Made my point? Not by half!” Diamond snorted. “If we don’t evolve soon we’ll be dead in the water, just another relic of bygone days- look what happened to </span>
  <em>
    <span>Pyroclastic</span>
  </em>
  <span>!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He was wrong. Pyroclastic had happened to disband because the drummer’s family had begged him to return to a normal life of tunnelling, the lead guitarist had dropped out after a series of drunken mishaps with a sweartoad and the lead singer had decided to become a lawyer. Still, the group’s popularity had been dwindling even before then.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“But it’s integral to our brand,” Igneous replied, waving a vague hand at Mulch.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Mulch is not our brand,” Diamond folded his arms.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He might as well be!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mulch held up his hands.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, don’t point the finger at me, I just yell into a microphone.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Iggy’s got a point,” Gneiss looked at him through eyes surrounded in a thick layer of black makeup.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She was a dwarf of few words, but Mulch felt them pointedly. The band, and Nord, looked at him expectantly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Let’s compromise,” he said, raising his hands. “Next album, Diamond gets to decide the artistic direction, we’ll do it in turn. Deal?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Diamond and Igneous looked at each other.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Fine,” they said. Their beard hairs calmed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nord breathed a sigh of relief.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Thank you,</span>
  </em>
  <span>” he exhaled. “Now can we get to the little matter of going over the show tonight? I don’t want a repeat of Disneyland.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The band collectively winced. Disneyland had not been pleasant for anyone, except maybe the media. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Lieutenant’s hand go to the side of her helmet. It was a gesture he had seen Holly do many times before, receiving a communication and responding.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mulch turned; one hairy eyebrow raised. Lieutenant Lye’s visor angled toward him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’ve got trouble coming up the chutes,” she said, stepping forward. “I’m afraid your show will most likely be cancelled.” There was a tone to her voice he half recognised. Gruff sounding.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nord frowned.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Trouble?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lieutenant Lye looked like she was about to explain, but then the window looking out to the departure lounge exploded. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. In Fair Verona</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you Neveroutoftime for betaing this!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>In truth it wasn’t the assassination attempt that duly worried him, Artemis had lived through many of those and usually came out on top. It was the <em>why </em>of the matter.</p><p>As far as he and Foaly could tell, no big hits had been called out on him on any of the usual human networks. There were no Mafiosos with public grudges, no small-time gang leader looking to make a name for themselves. Which had unfortunately led to Artemis’ train of thought.</p><p>“You don’t suppose she could have been hired by one of the People?” He eyed the centaur curiously.</p><p>Foaly’s brow furrowed.</p><p>“If she was, then we have bigger problems on our hands. Not that we don’t have problems anyway considering she’s got Holly’s communicator.”</p><p>Next to Artemis in the back of the car, Holly’s expression turned determined.</p><p>“Do you have literally anything on anyone at the party?”</p><p>“No one pinged through my filters, so it looks like our markswoman has a history of using false identities. And of course, it wasn’t like anyone did a headcount after evacuation from Palazzo Pesca,” the centaur shrugged, then he turned and frowned as if something was happening off screen.</p><p>“Foaly?” Holly asked.</p><p>A few words were exchanged, then he returned, his expression grim.</p><p>“We found our mole, and possibly a lead. One of my interns just showed up dead in his own apartment, roommate phoned it in. He received a load of fake notes covered in dust; tests showed it was some VX nerve agent.”</p><p>“That is interesting,” Artemis murmured, pulling the report out of the air.</p><p>Butler glanced in the rear-view mirror, interested by the mention of toxins.</p><p>“VX usually comes in liquid form, oily and amber in colour. Nasty stuff.”</p><p>Artemis nodded.</p><p>“And everyday fairy murderers don’t tend to use human-made toxins, which is where I’m assuming your lead comes in?” He looked to Foaly.</p><p>“Lupina Caniae, daughter of a prominent socialite, criminal record as long as a stinkworm,” Foaly flicked a finger, bringing an image of the elf to the screen.</p><p>“What’s her connection to the toxin?” Holly frowned, scrolling through Caniae’s track record.</p><p>“Smuggling. She’s on parole for smuggling contraband at the moment, last time we grabbed her we couldn’t round up all of it, scattered away amongst her hideouts. She’ll buy up some flats and hand them over to her minions, who rent them out to unsuspecting fairies unaware they’re sitting on top of batteries, CDs- once or twice we found human munitions.”</p><p>Artemis tilted his head, curiosity piqued.</p><p>“Human munitions? What do they need them for?”</p><p>Foaly shrugged.</p><p>“Caniae- or Captain Fang as she likes to be known, runs a tight ship. Haven’t been able to find anyone willing to talk about them for any amount of money. I have my theories of course.”</p><p>“Which are?”</p><p>“Our technology is extremely sophisticated,” Foaly paused to wave a hand at the screens floating around the back of the car. “As you may have already noticed. Now, we haven’t had much active combat on a military scale with mudmen. Sure, there’s been you- well mostly Butler, but we haven’t had full out battles with mudpeople for a long time.”</p><p>Artemis closed his eyes and leaned back slightly.</p><p>“Haven securities haven’t accounted for bullets,” he said.</p><p>“Yes,” the centaur replied, sheepishly. “Something which I am looking into. Right now. As we speak, in fact.”</p><p>“That’s reassuring,” Holly’s voice was layered with cheerful sarcasm.</p><p>“I’m assuming you’re at least keeping an eye on Miss Caniae?” Artemis opened his eyes and raised an eyebrow.</p><p>“We’ve been trying to keep as close an eye as possible, her father’s been bending the ear of the Council though. Saying we’re upsetting her delicate mindset,” Foaly snorted.</p><p>“Back to the point, has Caniae had any recent contacts with humans? Anyone matching the shooter’s general description?” Holly tilted Foaly’s screen towards herself.</p><p>“Nah, nothing like that. We’ve only recently been getting blips in the area that suggest she might be planning an illegal jaunt topside-”</p><p>There was the tumultuous sound of someone rushing into Operations. Foaly looked up and again talked to someone off screen. He returned a few seconds later.</p><p>“I’ve got good news and bad news.”</p><p>“The good news?” Holly asked.</p><p>“We definitely know her next move.”</p><p>“The bad?”</p><p>“She’s currently charging E9 in a fleet of shuttles.”</p><p>“What business does she have in Verona then?” Artemis asked, well acquainted with the chute system. “Well, other than the…” he trailed off.</p><p>“The orbital network,” Holly finished.</p><p>“Looks like we might shift that equipment drop up a notch then,” Foaly muttered. “Oh, and you’ll be picking up Mulch if you can find him.”</p><p>“I thought he was doing music stuff now,” Holly glanced towards the window, even though it was tinted the pale streaks of morning light worried her.</p><p>Not to mention both Butler and Artemis had barely had any sleep, keeping moving was generally a good way to stay alive when you knew someone was trying to kill you.</p><p>“He is. He was set to do an early show at the Verona terminal with the <em>Dead Rabbits</em>,” Foaly only looked mildly miffed at the name. “The other, other good news is that if you can get there you’ll have at least one more person to back you up. Oh, and Lieutenant Lye of course.”</p><p>Holly's mood brightened slightly; Lye was fairly young but reliable and level-headed. She was also one of Holly’s own trainees.</p><p>“We knew the orbital network would be a target for criminals, but I have to admit this wasn’t the direction I thought they would come from,” Artemis took Caniae's record from where Holly had left it, hanging in the air, and began to read through</p><p>“The faster you can get it from Verona to Mont Fowl the better- actually, the faster you can get yourself to Mont Fowl the better too,” Foaly briefly paused in his typing to crack his knuckles. “Still got your activation key?”</p><p>“How could I not, unless I suddenly came down with laryngitis,” Artemis smiled.</p><p>“Or you forgot,” Foaly pointed out.</p><p>The smile faltered.</p><p>“Yes, of course. But Butler or Holly would simply need to remind me of the phrase.”</p><p>An uncomfortable quiet filled the car.</p><p>“So, absolutely nothing on the shooter?” Butler’s deep voice rolled over them like waves over stones.</p><p>“Not yet, but if she is working for Fang, she’s only been brought on board recently. I’ll keep looking.”</p><p>-</p><p>Fang herself was feeling rather good. A brief interlude to get all the shuttles together- decommissioned LEP people carriers given over to Logan to do whatever they wanted. Logan had taken to the task happily, or at least what Fang assumed was happy.</p><p>She didn’t like to show her hand so hard and fast in the way that she was, but Fang figured if everything went to plan she might even get an official pardon. They could rule the surface again, breathe sweet air again. Send the mudmen below where they belonged.</p><p>Fang piloted the lead ship herself, grinning all the way. Logan’s lasershot cannons made short work of anything in their path, manned or not. She never liked to hurt another fairy without reason, but hey. She’d transmitted them a fair warning.</p><p>E9’s terminal port approached quickly, Fang leaned over and flicked onto Logan’s channel.</p><p>“Got those doors open for me yet, darling?” She grinned.</p><p>“I’m waiting to detonate the charges when you’re in range. It gives you the element of surprise, Captain,” Logan coughed slightly. “There is something you should know, however.”</p><p>“Oh?” Fang replied, dipping slightly to avoid an outcropping of rock.</p><p>“There’s an LEP lieutenant at the terminal doing babysitting duty for the band Diggums is in.”</p><p>Her heart dropped.</p><p>“Who?” She asked, already knowing.</p><p>“Lieutenant Mynah Lye.”</p><p>Fang gritted her teeth.</p><p>“I can send an off-limits order, Captain,” Logan said.</p><p>“Do it,” Fang pushed the joysticks forward a little more, ignoring the grimace of her co-pilot.</p><p>“Sending it out now.”</p><p>It would be Mynah, sod’s law. Out of all the LEP they could have sent to guard Diggums’ dwarf behind it had to be her ex. Of course, it wasn’t like Mynah’d listen to any sort of r<em>eason </em>or would stay out of harm’s way.</p><p>Still, the off-limits order would keep her relatively safe. Knocked unconscious by neutrino blast, but alive, nevertheless. Only one LEP officer was a good sign though, they weren’t expected and the engineer they’d paid to plant the explosives hadn’t tattled. Probably helped by the shot in his back of course.</p><p>“Breathe, Captain,” Logan’s voice came through the earpiece this time. “Your heart rate and breathing are well above normal. Not to mention the dangerous speed.”</p><p>Captain Fang forced herself to breathe and eased off the joysticks. Logan was right, she couldn’t just allow her emotions to overrun her actions. She wouldn’t be another Koboi, after all.</p><p>“I’ve been running interference on the LEP communications between Haven and the surface, I haven’t been able to stop the horsebox, but I have managed to confuse things a little. Let me know when you’d like the E9 terminal to resume normal communications.”</p><p>“Approximately three seconds before you detonate the doors, if you please sweetheart,” Fang’s grin returned.</p><p>“Affirmative, Captain.”</p><p>And four minutes later, they did. Five strategically placed charges, plastic based explosives laced with trace amounts of an experimental acidic webbing. When exploded, the acid webbing spread over the target areas and disintegrated it. Logan had been immensely proud, well, at least they seemed proud. One could never be quite sure with the dwarf.</p><p>Now the charges would only open the chute up to the docking bay, they could use the lasershot cannons to blast their way through the main doors of course. It would make a bit of a mess that the mudmen would notice, but what was mess when you were trying to change the world?</p><p>Fang was first through the dissolving doorways, the hole only just big enough to fly through. She knocked the radio antennae off, but it had mostly been there for show anyway.</p><p>Her face split into her familiar grin as she thumbed open the hatch on the lasershot cannons and aimed herself at the main doorways. The straggling overday fairy travellers split before her as she came crashing into the departure lounge.</p><p>Captain Fang opened fire.</p><p>-</p><p>On the other hand, Lieutenant Mynah Lye was wishing she could. She had tipped several couches to hide the dwarves from fire, but that had been like trying to use a domino to hide a bowling ball.</p><p>Not to mention, she’d been given strict orders not to fire. In fact, she’d been given orders to not give away the fact she was there at all. Which led to Mynah having just the smallest crisis. By nature, she followed the rules. Her father had been in the LEP, he’d been a field Sprite for many years and had drilled the law into her head so much she could probably quote it more than the Booke.</p><p>Then there had been Holly; Captain Short had always seemed to Mynah to be more of a fairy story. Three months after graduating, she was stood with a few other young recruits handpicked by Short.</p><p>“Follow the rules,” Holly had said. “Follow the rules until you can’t anymore. Then improvise.”</p><p>This had been a shock to Mynah’s system, her father hadn’t really approved of it. But he couldn’t say much, she got the impression he was proud of her at least.</p><p>Mulch tapped her on the shoulder. She knew it was Mulch because he was still eating his dirt dog and he spoke with his mouth half full.</p><p>“Any bright ideas, lieutenant?”</p><p>Mynah ventured a look over the sofa, the craft was a modded LEP Songbird and was pummelling laser charges into the main doors. It paused briefly to drift over to the side, to allow another Songbird to join it in the departure lounge. Together they resumed the blasts. It wouldn’t be long before they blasted a hole big enough to fly the other couple of Songbirds out into the early dawn.</p><p>“My orders are to stay down,” she said, through gritted teeth.</p><p>“That’s not the cavalier sprite attitude I was expecting,” Mulch replied.</p><p>Mynah’s jaw flexed. The recently returned LEP chatter in her ear wasn’t as comforting as she thought it would be. Someone was very helpfully informing her that help was on the way soon, ETA two minutes.</p><p><em>We don’t </em>have <em>two minutes, </em>she thought bitterly.</p><p>“Lieutenant Lye!” A different voice, but one she was at least happy to hear.</p><p>“Foaly!” Mulch replied, leaning close enough to her helmet to hear him.</p><p>“Good to hear you’re still kicking, Mulch. Lieutenant, patching you through to Holly now- Fang’s got one hell of a jammer.”</p><p>Oh good, now Captain Short would be able to see her first failure up close and in high definition. Mynah angled her helmet cam to a slightly better position.</p><p>“In position, Captain,” she said.</p><p>“Mynah!” Captain Short sounded worried.</p><p>“Holly!” Mulch called into the microphone.</p><p>“Mulch? I hope you’re keeping out of the way.”</p><p>“Trying my best but you know my fans, they can get pretty feisty.”</p><p>Mynah resisted the urge to elbow him in the stomach, for one doubting it would get through the thick bands of dwarvish… muscle and because he was technically a hero. Not to mention, Captain Short’s friend.</p><p>“We’ve got about thirty seconds before they break through the doors, Captain. I can buy the reinforcements some time, I think,” Mynah shifted her weight, stretching her wing ligaments slightly.</p><p>“Do not do what I think you are about to do, Lieutenant,” Captain Short said, sharply.</p><p>“If you’re about to do what I think you’re about to do, know one hundred percent that Holly would have done the same thing,” Mulch said, unhelpfully. “Not that I’m encouraging that sort of behaviour of course.”</p><p>Lieutenant Mynah Lye stood, and took to the air, having the good grace to wince slightly before muting Captain Short. It was for the good of the People after all- she might be able to give Fang some pause. She flitted over the Songbirds, feeling as mortal as a mayfly, and then dived towards their stream of fire.</p><p>Mynah kept her eyes open. It was something her dad had taught her, because you never knew when the situation could change in your favour. But if you were cowering in a corner with your eyes shut, you gave your attackers a chance.</p><p>Which was why she noticed that the blasts stopped, almost the exact second she appeared in front of the cannons. She spun to face the Songbirds, her wings clearing away a lot of the smoke. Mynah couldn’t tell which one Lupita was in, but at least she’d stopped them shooting. Or at least that was what she was pretty sure had happened. Mynah flicked on the speakers.</p><p>“You don’t have to do this, Lupita,” she said.</p><p>Something behind Mynah broke and crashed to the ground. She felt the cold morning air brush over the back of her neck.</p><p>“There is no turning back from this,” Mynah kept her voice low and gentle.</p><p>Later she would wonder if there was anything she could have said that would have stopped Fang.</p><p>But in the present, her helmet warned her that something fast was coming up behind her, and a gunshot ricocheted past her.</p><p>-</p><p>The message Ahari had received could’ve been a hell of a lot clearer. They’d barely given her any time to go through the files on Fowl- but most of it seemed like an absolute fever dream.</p><p>Fairies? Really?</p><p>She was speeding down a dirt road a click or so outside of Verona, zeroing in on a set of coordinates- a large hill. Some god awful noise was coming from it, and then it seemed to crack open. There was a woman with wings floating in front of two space age looking floating crafts.</p><p><em>“Just get us out of there before the LEP shows up- you’ll know them cause they’re wearing green.” </em>Had been the mysterious woman- Captain Fang’s orders.</p><p>So, she drew her gun and shot off to the side of the fairy. No point in shooting her, it was too familiar to the other one. Ahari felt a pang of guilt rise to the surface, which she tucked away again. There was a time and a place for processing that sort of thing and it wasn’t here or now.</p><p>The fairy dropped in an obviously trained manoeuvre, wings folding up like a ladybird’s. There were a few more raucous blasts at the smouldering edges of the hole, and then six of the crafts flew out in quick succession.</p><p>“Great timing there,” Fang’s voice echoed inside her helmet, it could have been Ahari’s imagination or was that voice thick? As though the good Captain were fighting some sort of lump in her throat.</p><p>That aside, it hadn’t been hard to cobble a little bit of the fairy tech into the helmet itself, especially with the help of Logan. They were a smart one, if Ahari made it through this she was half tempted to offer them a job at Beran AI.</p><p>“Right, I hope that little dirt bike can do some speed, we need to get to the Verona Institute of… whatever the fuck it’s called.”</p><p>Ahari sped on, trying not to watch in awe as the crafts disappeared in the early morning light.</p><p><em>We must not look at goblin men, </em>she thought drily, <em>we must not buy their fruits; who knows upon what soil they fed their hungry thirsty roots?</em></p><p>Which was true, she probably shouldn’t be watching if she wanted to keep her bike on the damn road. The bike kept a decent speed, Ahari herself had made most of it. The engine was her own design, running off of vegetable oil and water.</p><p>The patent, her mother’s inheritance, and the life insurance money from both of her parents had been more than enough to pay off her father’s debt when his business had gone under. Of course, the patent was the biggest money maker she’d had, every automobile company on the globe had been sniffing at her heels for the clean energy solution.</p><p>Most of the money went to charities. Ahari was not a believer in hoarding funds like some kind of dragon. She kept enough to keep her business alive, the Beran house renovated and to pay off her friend’s student loans.</p><p>She thought on what she had learned of Fowl, of his schemes and heists. Kidnapping a fairy for ransom to save his father and return his family to billionaires, <em>actually </em>saving his father and stopping a goblin rebellion, reaping what he sowed with the C-Cube and then that business with the pixie. It was frustrating only having half the picture, but still, she would have the rest once Fang had this activation key or whatever it was.</p><p>Beneath the helmet, her eyebrows crept together fractionally. What did she want with the orbital network anyway? Fairies surely had better technology than whatever Fowl was offering. Unless of course a fairy had also worked on it. What had been his name? Foley? The tech guy.</p><p>If it did have fairy technology, then it would be unlike anything humans had ever seen, a network of ultra-fast satellites surrounding the globe aiding communications.</p><p>Ahari glanced again at the shimmering shapes where the crafts had been. She might hate Artemis Fowl enough to work with this woman, but Ahari wasn’t too keen on what she imagined Fang had planned. A double cross it would have to be then, preferably sooner than later.</p><p>Ahari drove, and thought.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Alike In Fair Dignity</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Ahari makes a new friend. Holly attempts to settle a score. Mulch eats the entire contents of a minibar on Artemis' card.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you Mentosmori and neveroutoftime... wonderful people.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Holly was not pleased, which was fairly typical of her in these situations. But right now, she was less than pleased for an entirely new and shocking reason.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mynah had disobeyed a direct order, which had put her in the firing line of no less than four lasershot cannons. The fact that the Lieutenant had come out of that situation alive was not only a resounding relief, but also gave her time to be very angry on the fly to the engineering centre. Holly was beginning to understand exactly how Root felt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And lastly;” she said through gritted teeth as they skittered across the Verona rooftops. “You do not under </span>
  <em>
    <span>any</span>
  </em>
  <span> circumstances take suggestions from </span>
  <em>
    <span>Mulch Diggums</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes Captain, sorry Captain,” Lieutenant Lye replied.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’d been repeating it for most of their flight, Mynah had a soldier’s inflection to her voice that had Holly halfway believing she was actually sorry. Only halfway though.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ll be extremely lucky if you’re not on traffic duty after this, Lye.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I understand, Captain,” there was a tinge of regret there.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was hard for her, Holly knew, being the first goblin on the LEP’s payroll. Even if Mynah was only half, people tended to see the scales before they saw the wings.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Never thought I’d see the day Holly Short admonished someone for disobeying an order,” Foaly sniggered in her ear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Holly gritted her jaw and didn’t dignify him with a response. Her eyes snapped to the trailing lights ahead of them. The Songbird crafts were nippy, but they weren’t exactly quiet. It was how they got the name; they made a lovely whistling as they sailed through the air.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Behind them, a small army flickered through the air. Blackout suits, Damselfly wings, kitted out to the absolute nines. The situation was beyond bad- the LEP hadn’t had to mobilise this many people since the initial Fowl incident. It had only been the council that had stopped Trouble from pulling a Root and sending himself out into the field.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Dullahan’s bike is pretty sweet from what I can see on the security feed. Beran AI engine, very clean, custom fibreglass body, a number of interesting little modifications. Very distinctive,” Foaly seemed to be talking more to himself than to Holly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dullahan?” She frowned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Official codename; don’t ask. I wasn’t the one who came up with it, but it fits I suppose. A headless rider on a black horse,” Foaly allowed his voice to become dramatic and mocking towards the end.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I see,” Holly scowled at nothing in particular.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s tailing the Songbirds now, I’m happy to confirm that it </span>
  <em>
    <span>is </span>
  </em>
  <span>our shooter from Palazzo Pesca. Perhaps you’ll get to return the favour.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A phantom tingle crept through Holly’s shoulder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes. Perhaps we can have some words. Several short words,” the grin on Holly’s face was not a friendly one. “Are Butler and Artemis in position?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just about, aren’t you mudboy?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The exasperated sigh that came in a rush of static could only be Artemis.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, we are in position in the hotel across the road, well done on the evacuation of the area by the way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well if you will insist on still using gas,” Foaly snorted. “Thought a leak might get people away faster than saying that there was a crazed elf on the way- and I’m not just talking about Holly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Indeed, I doubt there’s any chance of a timestop?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, we can’t risk it with the lasershot cannons. All we can do is minimise exposure- still trying to work out how she got hold of so many Songbirds, let alone fix them up like this,” Holly could hear the frown in Foaly’s voice. “All I can do is send out a few heavy duty holograph projectors that should keep prying eyes out, and hopefully keep any loud noises in.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Perhaps your leak sent more than just information,” Artemis suggested.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Could I interject, Captain?” Mynah’s voice respectfully forced its way into the conversation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go ahead.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Caniae’s mother ran a publicity campaign about keeping Haven’s recycling up a few decades ago. It’s likely that access to the LEP junkyard was granted during this time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good memory, Lieutenant! I’ll see what I can’t run up,” Foaly replied.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The helmet layout informed Holly that the fairies behind her were beginning to spread out, ready to face whatever mess was waiting for them at the storage facility.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can estimate that you’ll be dealing with thirty-six probably armed fairies with extreme anti-human sentiment, including Fang herself. Each Songbird has a carry capacity of at least six excluding pilots and co-pilots. Then of course there’s our friend on the bike, who as far as we know has one nine-millimetre handgun.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks, Foaly. Ready Lieutenant?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Holly heard the small intake of breath that indicated Mynah was about to reply, but they were both cut off by a blast between them that left them both spiralling away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famiglia warehouses were apparently the safest in the world. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Safe as houses </span>
  </em>
  <span>was in fact their English marketing slogan. They stood tall and proud, grey metal walls and electric blue rooftops that contrasted sharply with the orange brick walls laid centuries earlier. They were a reliable company, Ahari had used them herself plenty of times when producing the clean engines and had been unsurprised to learn Fowl used them too. It had been a relief of sorts, one less thing to research.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At that moment however, she was not thinking about the warehouses. Ahari was wrestling with language. Parts of it she’d been able to backwards engineer using the language settings on the communicator. Right now, she was leaning up against a wall going through the Artemis Fowl files, switching them back and forth between English and the fairy language.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was also pretending to be nonchalant that there were little green men loading her motorcycle into one of the flying crafts. They didn’t seem to like her very much, but it wasn’t like Ahari cared. She was here to put a bullet in the brain of one man and one man alone. Captain Fang clapped her on the hip.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now then, my new and bestest friend- you got a name? Literally anything I can call you by?” Her grin was almost friendly, like they’d been friends for years.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ahari shrugged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I get it, minimal identifiers and all that,” the Captain nodded approvingly. “I guess I’ll just yell ‘Oi you’ when I need you. Or ‘human’.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The courtyard the Songbirds were depositing little men and women into was old and disused. There were weeds growing rampant through the cracks in the concrete, vines growing unrestrained up the walls. Ahari quite liked the aesthetic of that, the green amongst the grey and orange.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It also happened to back onto the Famiglia warehouses. Fang pointed at them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In there, somewhere, are two somethings I’m interested in acquiring. Me and my lovely lads are going to be looking for one while you look for the other, simple right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ahari nodded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You don’t need to worry about what we’re looking for; all I need you to do is find the activation key for Mont Fowl.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ahari could’ve laughed. She would have been perfectly safe to do so; the helmet suppressed all noise from the inside. It wasn’t like she was about to get caught after being identified from a sneeze or something as stupid as that. But she could have laughed because she already </span>
  <em>
    <span>had </span>
  </em>
  <span>the activation key. Ahari had obtained it months ago, having spent four months undercover in Mont Fowl’s construction as an electrical engineer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Fang wouldn’t need to know that yet. It would be as good a time as any to see if she couldn’t get a shot at Fowl, or simply observe who her enemy’s allies were. Not to mention figure out how best to extract herself from this partnership and make sure whatever damage Fang planned on inflicting never occurred.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now I’d very much prefer you didn’t kill anyone,” Fang looked at Ahari and her voice sounded completely different. Compelling.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ahari nodded. She hadn’t been planning to kill anyone aside from Fowl.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good, get yourself back to the Songbirds when you’ve got the activation key and we’ll go from there.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ahari didn’t need any other commands and took a running start at the wall, jumping to catch the top with her fingertips before dragging herself over. She dropped down to the other side before quickly making her way over to a side door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was a keypad, which annoyed her. She’d been hoping for a simple lock that could be picked, but she supposed a swift kick would have to do. A lock was only as strong as the door it sat in of course. She kicked from the hip, aiming for the joint of the jamb.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As her boot connected, she heard a shot. More than a shot really, more like a blast.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Artemis watched the figure disappear into the warehouse with interest. From his new vantage point on top of the hotel he could see quite a lot of the action. Mulch seemed more interested in the contents of the hotel room’s minibar and had brought the minifridge up with him. Butler had managed to secrete the three of them in a modified LEP camo blind and was also watching the chaos beginning to unfold.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Five of the six Songbirds rose into the air again after their fairy cargo had been dropped off, turning their cannons on the approaching, shielded LEP. He watched as a shimmering bubble grew over the warehouses and evacuated streets.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is too risky,” Artemis said aloud.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tell me about it, Captain Fang has a history of doing things fast and loud. All usually under the banner of helping the People regain their ‘rightful place’. Call themselves </span>
  <em>
    <span>Tuath Dé,</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Foaly did not sound amused. No fairy would be after all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Artemis nodded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then we know why she wants the orbital network so badly. If she can get to it before we can launch it…” Artemis trailed off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It would be bad, to say the least. A renegade elf doing what she believed would be best for the People with access to the technology, which was meant to prevent another Big Dark and help people and clean the orbit.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>On the surface, it didn’t seem that bad. But when considering the communication reach of each satellite- not to mention the diamond focused lasers each satellite would use to carve up the space detritus. In the hands of this maniac they could become laser wielding mass surveillance drones.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Not exactly the kind of thing he’d been going for.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She won’t,” Foaly replied, but he didn’t sound confident. “Holly and Lieutenant Lye are after our Dullahan in the middle of this mess. Retrieval One are having an absolute whale of a time, it’s been a while since they’ve been in an operation like this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Artemis pretended to be hurt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The kidnapping affair wasn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>that </span>
  </em>
  <span>long ago,” he pointed out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mynah dropped out of the sky, rolling across the concrete in a practiced movement. She scrambled behind a parked car as a few shots whistled cleanly past her. The gang were not trying to shoot her, curiously. The smouldering ashy black circles were too high and wide.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mynah!” Captain Short’s voice crackled through her helmet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Conscious and uninjured Captain,” Mynah crouched behind the trunk of the car, peering around it ever so slightly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The filtering morning light was grey, they’d been lucky with cloud cover. But even the pale sunlight made her wings itch, it wasn’t like they could be covered in a blackout suit after all.  A shot went wide past her head, bursting the break light of the car in front of her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pinned down in the street outside of the warehouse,” Mynah unclipped a flashbang from her belt. “Can you see me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I have eyes on you, the shooters are at eleven o’clock from your current position.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you, Captain,” Mynah stood and threw the flashbang in an overarm movement.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The small metal cylinder sailed through the air, before bouncing across the tarmac at the feet of a particularly surprised pixie and a gnome who had already taken the evasive procedure of leaping into a bin. Mynah ducked down again, only catching a glimpse of the white flash before straightening up, unholstering her neutrino properly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The pixie was flat on his back, the gnome was peeking out from his hiding spot, before Captain Short landed feet first on top of the lid. The bin stayed shut.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right, Lieutenant with me,” the Captain folded her wings away, sprinting towards the warehouses. “We’re on human hunting duty.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mynah quickly went after her, the second eyelid closing on reflex when passing through the remaining smoke.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Human hunting?” She asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The shooter was seen entering the first warehouse, and we’re going in after her,” the Captain had a grin on her face that made Mynah cautious.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Of course, it wasn’t her place to say anything about her superiors, so she kept quiet and covered the Captain’s back. They entered the warehouse through the side door the human had kicked in. Mynah was cautious about that too. Surely it was too obvious, they could be walking into a trap.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shield up, Lieutenant,” the Captain spoke into her helmet mic, speaking now through their comms line.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mynah complied, shimmering out of the visible spectrum. Sprites might not have had a lot of magic, but Flatnose Goblins certainly did. Flatnoses was the name given to Mynah’s subspecies, for their flat, catlike noses. They also sported long and wide ears with rounded tips, something seen as ‘cute’ among Goblin circles. Flatnoses were generally the kind of Goblin other fairies preferred to interact with, often being ambassadors for the general Goblin species. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The warehouse was lit, strip lights beaming down on huge industrial machines in their neat little rows. Production had been halted earlier by Artemis himself, and the warehouse evacuated. Mynah could still see half-finished satellites sitting in their cradles, waiting to have things soldered on or in them, wings folded up neatly like birds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right, over and up Lieutenant,” Captain Short jumped into the air, wings bearing her silently into the air.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sprites had to be trained in order for their wing movements to be undetectable, a technique aptly named ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Silent Flight’</span>
  </em>
  <span>. It didn’t help that the written instructions matched the beat and tempo of the human carol </span>
  <em>
    <span>Silent Night</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Still, thanks to that particular training course, Mynah also rose into the air silently.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Take the right-hand side, standard sweeping pattern,” she felt the breeze from Captain Short veering to the left.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Affirmative, Captain.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’d prefer the shooter alive, but I’ll turn a blind eye if she gets a bit singed,” Mynah could hear the grin in the Captain’s voice again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Understood, Captain.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mynah clicked the neutrino to the regulated level. She began sweeping the rows of machines, looking for anything knocked down, anything that would show movement. Her ear flicked, a quiet sound. Paper.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She hovered where she was, scanning the factory floor. There, in the corner- an office.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Captain, the office,” she began to head towards it, zooming in on the window.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The helmeted figure was there, leaning against the desk, sifting through a sheaf of papers in her hand. She didn’t appear to be looking for anything in particular, occasionally she would glance at something on her wrist. A flash of green confirmed Mynah’s suspicions, an LEP wrist communicator.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright Lieutenant, pincer movement,” Captain Short flickered like a mirage about ten meters to her left.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mynah followed her lead, edging closer to the office, neutrino half raised. The human turned once again and looked directly up at her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ahari had been in the office for a few minutes at least, sifting through papers and designs and printed emails. A paper trail? Really? Now that was sloppy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s not the activation key,” a voice said in her ear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shit,” Ahari said, on reflex.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The bottom dropped from her stomach. Alright, time to salvage this.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Logan, right?” She calmly continued searching through the papers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes,” the distant sound of a clicking keyboard came through. “Can I ask for a name or do I have to run a search on your voice?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ll find it eventually, but it’s Ahari. Ahari Beran.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>More clicking followed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, why’re you with Fang?” Ahari asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She pays well,” the answer was short, and the tone was shorter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m impressed with the cannons, could barely see the welding into the original weapon cradles. Though I expect you can do a lot more than that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was more silence for a time, then Logan spoke again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Beran AI and Engineering. Interesting family history.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What can I say? I have my reasons for being here,” Ahari leant on the desk, shuffling papers in her hands. “I was thinking of offering you a job if I got out of here alive.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A job?” The voice that was usually so flat sounded curious now. “What job could a human offer me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“One that pays pretty well, keeps you on the right side of the law and gives you the opportunity to prove what I imagine is true.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was a gamble for sure, a wild guess at best.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sure we both know Fang’s a zealot, and this identity compromise wasn’t really something I planned for- congratulations on surprising me enough to have that happen by the way. Sooner or later we’re both expendable to her glorious revolution or whatever exactly she’s trying to do.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s trying to use Fowl’s orbital network to take over the world and put the fairy people back on the surface again,” Logan replied.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Back on the surface?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes. We live underground.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, cool. I mean, I hope it’s cool?” Ahari frowned her herself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s alright. The water’s always hot.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well that’s good at least. Still. My offer stands. And I have the activation code already. Had it months ago.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can see. You’ve been planning this for a while. I’ll think on your offer.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Excellent,” Ahari clutched the paper a little tighter to stop her hands from shaking.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I do have something to offer you though, you already have the LEP hardware to support it so just give me a second to upload the software,” a few strings of Gnommish scrolled across her visor, before it turned slightly greyish- like it had been polarised.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There, you should be able to see past the fairy shield now. Oh, and the LEP have your position.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Ahari turned, catching movement.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Two figures hovered in the air, helmeted, and winged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, shit,” she managed, before diving out of the way of a blast.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, indeed. I can give you a bit of cover from here, the lights and machines don’t exactly have the best security encryptions,” Logan hummed to themselves as they worked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Around Ahari, everything seemed to be exploding. The blast had connected with a computer tower on the desk and was sparking and popping. It wasn’t going to be long before the two flying… LEP agents? She really needed to ask what LEP meant- but it wouldn’t be long before they found a better position to shoot her from. Not to mention the lights were now flickering like crazy and the machines were starting to howl like a thousand wolves.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There weren’t many options, so Ahari dove through a broken window, rolled, and started running. It was a familiar situation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course, if you’re betraying Fang I hope you have something on her, or a very good extraction plan,” Logan continued as the machines whirred and blasts scattered sparks across her vision. “Though I assume your time as Olivia White probably gave you some insider information.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ahari grimaced. So now Logan was inside her personal systems, trawling through her fake identities.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I have a few ideas. I could ask you the same about escape, dunno how Fang deals with traitors and call me a bleeding heart but I don’t like the idea of anyone getting hurt,” Ahari grunted as she scrambled under the long arm of an automatic welder, dropping down onto some sort of conveyor belt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It moved under her and she stumbled, before starting off again, trying to reorient herself, trying to remember which way the door was. A shot landed inches away from her feet and Ahari grimaced to feel the heat at her ankle. None of this was good.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I am aware Fang has planted liquid charges in my equipment and in our current hideout. Should she suspect anything I have no doubt she would detonate them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oof, that’s a tricky one,” Ahari jumped off of the conveyor and onto a moving welder arm, scrambling up it to jump across the gap between machines.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Quite. I rerouted most of my systems into a small collection of portable devices that Fang did not rig. The ones she did rig are mostly decorative now- take a left here I’m opening the main doors for you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ahari took a left, leaping over another gap and really wishing she’d invested more in some kind of parkour facility that moved. Running and jumping up stationary obstacles was one thing, climbing over moving machinery and robotic workers that looked like they’d walked out of a science fiction film was another. Not to mention, she was still getting shot at. She blinked a large garage door opened in front of her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not that I don’t appreciate it,” Ahari said, surprisingly cheerful despite her situation. “But considering I just put betraying your employer on the table, you’re still helping me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I am.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ahari jumped to the floor, narrowly missing another bolt of energy that only clipped her shoulder. Even through the air filters on her helmet she could still smell the singed leather. She bolted across the concrete, using the frame to swing herself around the corner and sprinting back down the small alleyway between wall and warehouse.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You have my sympathy and you are interesting,” Logan replied.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, well. Thank you, Logan,” Ahari glanced up at the sky, before spotting a Songbird descending back to the courtyard.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You are welcome.” </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. I Forgot to Remember to Forget</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Fang has a good time. Artemis gets dragged off a roof. Logan makes some discoveries. Ahari makes some too.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Look out! Suicide mention in this chapter.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>This was the most fun she’d had in <em>decades</em>. Fang grinned from ear to pointy ear as she dove and blasted and barrelled her way through the sky.</p>
<p>“Captain?” Logan’s calm voice barely registered to her.</p>
<p>Fang cackled as she sent another officer spiralling to the ground, his wings automatically buffering him for a soft landing. It wasn’t that she liked hurting other fairies, it was just that the LEP insisted on getting in her way. No doubt when she claimed the surface for them they’d probably pardon her or something. Give her one of those titles that meant shit-all nothing.</p>
<p>“Captain?” Logan’s voice was a little louder this time. “I have a marked line visible on the LEP communications.”</p>
<p>Fang started paying attention. Marked lines were always important people.</p>
<p>“Commander Kelp?” The grin got slightly wider.</p>
<p>“No, he’s not physically present at the moment. I have reason to believe this line is for Artemis Fowl.”</p>
<p>Fang barked a laugh.</p>
<p>“Connect me, let’s have a chat with the mudboy.”</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>Artemis’ phone rang. It was surprising, as usually he had it on silent aside from a few select contacts. As he examined the screen he was further perplexed.</p>
<p>“Unknown number,” he glanced at Butler out of the corner of his eye. “Mulch, what’s the area code for Haven?”</p>
<p>Mulch snorted.</p>
<p>“Hare, Acorn, Violet,” he replied, peering into the now empty minifridge.</p>
<p>Artemis looked to the corresponding symbols on the screen before accepting the call.</p>
<p>“Captain Fang, I assume,” he said.</p>
<p>A whipcrack of a laugh echoed down the line.</p>
<p>“So, you <em>are</em> smart. Good, I like not being disappointed.”</p>
<p>Artemis looked to the black octagon projecting Foaly’s image and raised an eyebrow. The centaur in turn gave him a thumbs up, Fang’s voice was appearing onscreen as wavelengths.</p>
<p>“I didn’t realise you wanted me dead as much to betray your own kind,” Artemis looked up at the aerial battle, a slight frown crossing his face. “I hope her skills are worth exposing the People for.”</p>
<p>Another laugh.</p>
<p>“I’m not. I dunno what you did Fowl, but she fucking hates you- she isn’t going to stop until you’re choking on your own blood,” Fang’s voice made it clear she was grinning. “It doesn’t matter what she knows, everyone’ll know soon enough.”</p>
<p>“How terribly dramatic, next you’ll be telling me she comes from a long line of hired killers,” Artemis went to examine his fingernails, but remembered he was wearing gloves. Instead he inspected the leather stitching. “As for everyone knowing, don’t be so boorish as to tell me your plans are world domination.”</p>
<p>“You’d like that wouldn’t you? If I was just some other crazy shithead trying to crush everyone beneath their heels. Nah. That’s not my style,” there was a pause and a grunt, something had jolted the Songbird.</p>
<p>Artemis looked upwards, spotting the craft that was realigning itself. It had taken a heavy shot from an LEP unmanned drone. He nodded toward it, hoping that at least someone was looking at him.</p>
<p>“I dream bigger and better. Better for us, that is,” another pause. “Fairies back where we belong, up top in the moonlight.”</p>
<p>“I see, and your criminal record just happens to be unfortunate mistakes?” Artemis tracked the craft as he spoke.</p>
<p>Captain Fang was a decent pilot but spent a lot of her time bearing down headfirst into combat, barrelling through LEP formations. Artemis winced as another officer was sent down to the ground, wings making them spiral like a helicopter seed.</p>
<p>“Justice and law don’t always meet happily; I’m just doing what’s best for my People.”</p>
<p>Another officer sank.</p>
<p>“I see,” Artemis replied.</p>
<p>“Don’t get all high and mighty with me, bitch boy,” Fang snapped down the receiver.</p>
<p>Artemis glanced at Foaly, who had his hand covering his mouth. Insults he was generally used to, but usually they were never so crude.</p>
<p>“Can’t make an omelette without breaking a few heads,” there was a rustling sound like she might had shrugged.</p>
<p>“Eggs,” Artemis couldn’t help but correct her.</p>
<p>“Whatever.”</p>
<p>“Was there a reason for this call, or did you just want to gloat over your supposed moral motive superiority?” Artemis asked, watching Fang’s Songbird closely.</p>
<p>“Yup,” the Songbird swung around in the air and pointed both cannons at the canopy.</p>
<p>The next couple of seconds for Artemis seemed to happen too fast. He reached out instinctively to his left where Butler stood. Butler, as a seasoned veteran of this kind of situation, had already clamped a hand to his shoulder and was pulling him off of his feet. A split second later the roof he had been standing on exploded. A small blackened object for a few brief seconds broke his heart until he realised that it was the minifridge and not Mulch Diggums, fried to a crisp. Mulch had in fact, with his dwavern instincts, blasted <em>himself</em> thirty feet backwards using a build-up of dwarf gas as a kind of self-propulsion. Disgusting, if lifesaving.</p>
<p>His phone had spiralled out of his hand, cracking on what remained of the roof. Artemis remembered being disappointed that the supposed apocalypse-proof case had not protected the device.</p>
<p>“Artemis?” Butler’s voice came worried.</p>
<p>“Hm, yes old friend?” He looked at Butler.</p>
<p>Then he looked around himself. They were no longer on the roof, they were in an LEP transit craft- a Peregrine model if he wasn’t mistaken. He allowed the barest trace of a frown to cross his face.</p>
<p>“Apologies,” he opened his mouth to explain, but words seemed to fail him.</p>
<p>“You forgot again,” Butler replied, quietly. It was a statement not a question. “What’s the last thing you remember?”</p>
<p>“We were on the roof, Captain Fang had just fired on us, I thought Mulch died but it was the fridge, my phone case was completely and utterly useless,” Artemis blinked hard, as if he was trying to squeeze out the memories that must have come between then and now.</p>
<p>Butler rested a hand on his shoulder, an anchor he did not know he had needed.</p>
<p>“It’s been nearly half an hour, all that’s happened is that we got picked up by the LEP. Mulch is fine, by the way.”</p>
<p>Artemis nodded.</p>
<p>“The episodes are getting shorter, at least,” he said, his tone short and clipped.</p>
<p>There was a kind of reserved look in the bodyguard’s eyes, but now wasn’t exactly the time to talk about any memory problems.</p>
<p>“What happened with Fang?” He asked. “Where’s Mulch now?”</p>
<p>“Right here,” an arm languidly raised from the row of seats behind him. “I’m recovering from the attempt on my life with the worst military rations the LEP has to offer.”</p>
<p>“Well, we’re still trying to contain the warehouses, she’s three Songbirds down- none of them contained her or the Dullahan. But I’ve got a little more bad news,” Foaly’s image hung in the air as Artemis sank into a seat.</p>
<p>He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed the bridge of his nose.</p>
<p>“She has reinforcements,” he guessed aloud.</p>
<p>“Cigar for the mudboy- well. Mudman at this point,” the centaur was attempting a cheery tone, but it came very half hearted through the speakers.</p>
<p>“How many?” Butler asked, taking a seat across from Artemis.</p>
<p>“Tuath Dé are more popular than we expected. They’re swarming multiple European chutes, which is why you’re currently heading to a blacksite until further notice.”</p>
<p>Artemis raised an eyebrow.</p>
<p>“Seems a little dramatic,” he looked to the hologram.</p>
<p>“I listened to your little chat with Fang again, the Dullahan doesn’t have any connection to Fang, she’s only gunning for you. We get you out of the way, we get one rogue human out of the way too,” Foaly shrugged. “It’s just good old-fashioned logic.”</p>
<p>“And you’ve got my Lieutenant to look after you,” another screen joined Foaly’s, Holly with a grim smile on her face.</p>
<p>Artemis glanced to the cockpit where he saw the pilot’s shoulders droop slightly. The rounded ears of Lieutenant Lye gave her away completely.</p>
<p>“Don’t worry, you’ve got Foaly to keep you updated,” Holly’s face split into a grin. “And Mulch to keep you company.”</p>
<p>Artemis held up a slender finger.</p>
<p>“How exactly are you splitting the shooter from Fang?”</p>
<p>Foaly looked mildly uncomfortable.</p>
<p>“I’ll tell you, but Butler’s not going to like it.”</p>
<p>“I rarely do,” the bodyguard said, dryly.</p>
<p>“The Dullahan’s using LEP tech, I might not be able to track it with whatever she’s done to it, but I can still contact it- just about. Enough to send through snippets of information about the blacksite and such,” Foaly was speaking very fast with only a mild trace of nervousness to his voice.</p>
<p>“Bait,” Artemis concluded. “I am in fact, bait.”</p>
<p>“Only until we can stick a mindwipe headset on that human, and the blacksite is I’d say nigh on impregnable. I designed it myself as a backup if the Verona terminal was ever compromised, which as luck would have it, it has.”</p>
<p>“It’d better be,” Butler commented, checking his Sig Sauer. “I thought these sort of days were supposed to be behind us.”</p>
<p>Artemis raised his palms in a surrendering gesture.</p>
<p>“They chose to come to <em>me,</em>” he protested. “I have been on the straight and narrow for at least eight years now.”</p>
<p>“Only eight?” It was Holly’s turn to arch an eyebrow.</p>
<p>“Forgive me for not being in the best of moods to take time tunnel temporal displacement and my death into the calculation,” he looked out of the porthole at his elbow, wondering if he’d always needed to crane his neck to look down through it.</p>
<p>“You’ll be safe as houses, scout’s honour,” Foaly made a gesture of crossing over his heart.</p>
<p>“I should hope so, the shooter’s already gotten away twice- no offence Holly,” he grimaced slightly in the hologram’s direction.</p>
<p>Holly made a rude gesture in reply.</p>
<p>“What’s the foundation like?” Mulch sat up suddenly, standing on the seat to peer over Artemis’ shoulder. “Y’know, to make sure we can make a hasty stage exit if needed.”</p>
<p>“Mostly concrete, but the bunker has a dwarf exit vault,” Foaly called up a few floorplans. “Of course, not that I expect you’ll need it. There’s a full LEP team already waiting there.”</p>
<p>“In the meantime, we’re trying to catch up with Fang before she regroups with her gang, though it looks like she’s headed straight for the mountains,” Holly looked away from her screen for a few seconds, Artemis assumed peering toward the cockpit of her own shuttle. “Assumedly towards Mont Fowl- she’s picked her conditions right. Thick cloud cover, low sunlight.”</p>
<p>“Foaly,” Artemis said suddenly. “Can you let me look at Fang’s communications and networks? I’d like to see it for myself.”</p>
<p>A few holographic screens and a keyboard flickered into being before him, information already beginning to scroll across them.</p>
<p>“A hunch?” Butler asked, well acquainted with his charge’s body language.</p>
<p>Artemis cracked his knuckles.</p>
<p>“A hunch,” he agreed.</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>Logan was watching the LEP swarm the Tuath Dé flats in downtown Haven. They watched via security camera- they’d had most of Haven’s security cameras hacked since they were a kid. Logan shut the stream off as the team branched out into the different rooms. There was no point in watching them search empty homes anyway.</p>
<p>They weren’t exactly crammed into a Songbird like every other lackey, but it wasn’t comfortable. Logan was nestled in a pile of tech they’d carefully extracted from the downtown flats, monitoring everything, marking everything, watching the LEP lines- and of course translating the Artemis Fowl files for the human. When they were done Logan sent them on, idly half watching Ahari scroll through them. Logan could see her in her shuttle of course, they’d personally installed cameras on every Songbird they could.</p>
<p>The modified key tracker also let Logan know exactly where Ahari was reading- she was going at quite a speed. She passed over anything related to Fowl’s business with humans, no doubt if she’d done her research then she already knew most of it. Ahari did take her time to absorb everything connecting the fairies to Fowl though, the kidnapping, the rescue, the reclamation, the remembering, the demons, the time portal… And then she paused.</p>
<p>She paused and started poking around in the files already contained in the communicator, a few keystrokes later and Logan knew what Ahari was looking for. Information on Atlantis Complex. Logan absently shot across a Faepedia article, vaguely translated to the communicator. The human’s fingertips hovered over a few words. Paranoia. Delusion. Lashing out.</p>
<p>Ahari closed the article and moved back to the files, concluding the last two big files quickly. She folded her arms and sat on the seat of the motorbike, thinking. Logan again pulled up the files on the Beran family. For a while they seemed quite nuclear. Mother, Olympia Beran, adopted child of a French aristocrat, famed opera singer. Father, Yosef Beran, CEO of Beran International- a small but relatively influential tech company. Brother, Fayyed Beran, her twin. All three dead, one by suicide the other two by tragic accident. Probing deeper, it wasn’t hard to find the reason Ahari’s hatred ran so deep.</p>
<p>Beran International had been bought out by Fowl Industries five or so years ago. Then it seemed, Fayyad took his own life and the two elder Berans were killed driving back from the hospital. A series of horrifying events which had left Ahari almost completely alone.</p>
<p>“The black sheep of the family became the only sheep in the family,” Logan murmured, fingers picking over keys.</p>
<p>There was something about the boy that bothered them, why had he killed himself? Surely he couldn’t hold himself responsible. They considered briefly patching into Ahari’s comms to ask, but then better judgement caught up with them.</p>
<p>Instead they looked into the human communications, secret business was never really secret business- especially when done between humans. It was harder to tell when it was the older or younger Fowl calling the shots in any particular deal than it was to get the details on said deal. The Beran International files seemed buried, forgotten. Not like someone had tried to cover it up, but like someone had tried to forget them.</p>
<p>Logan read.</p>
<p>Logan understood.</p>
  </div></div>
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